Top Three Videos – January 24, 2024

Economic and Political Policy Perspectives

• “It’s the military-industrial corporatist complex that Eisenhower warned us about in ’61.” – Rudy Havenstein
• Growing up as a Cold War hawk, the speaker’s anti-Soviet and anti-communist views shifted after reading Noam Chomsky’s book “Deterring Democracy.”
• If wars had to be paid for by raising taxes, the decision to go to war might be very different.
• Republican forms of government don’t work if the voting citizenry doesn’t feel adequately represented, and the government should prioritize the needs of the American people over international concerns.
• The real issue underlying this is the distribution of power in the country at the civic level, and it’s really about the power of each individual in society and not just the random assortment of leaders at the top of the hierarchy.
• The worship of ephemeral wealth in this country really bothers me, as we give wealthy people praise they don’t necessarily deserve and treat poor people with indignity they don’t necessarily deserve.
• Trump’s success in 2016 was due to presenting an economic narrative that people could relate to, unlike the MSM.
• Reagan’s slogan “Let’s make America great again” was inclusive and attracted blue collar Democrats, unlike the divisive messaging of Trump.

   

Critique of American Foreign Policy

• Hyperinflation is the worst possible outcome for any country, and it directly led to the rise of Hitler in Germany.
• “Why are we in Libya? Why do we do that where it’s open air slave markets now? We’re providing air support for Al-Qaeda in Syria. What is up with that?”
• Havenstein advocates for a policy of American withdrawal from wars that aren’t of grave mutual interest to America, and reducing America’s physical troop presence all over the world.